866 Joins Family Of Active Toll-Free Area Codes, Spurred By Continued Explosive Growth Of Service

BASKING RIDGE, N. J. – AT&T today announced that the continued explosive demand for the toll-free services it invented nearly 35 years ago has prompted the addition of a new toll-free exchange, with this week marking the first use of the "866" code that the Federal Communications Commission ordered put into service effective Saturday.

This addition brings the total of operating toll-free area codes to four. The original toll-free exchange – 800 – lasted 29 years after AT&T introduced the new way of calling in 1967. Next came 888, which went into service in March 1996, and then 877, which debuted in April 1998. Each area code contains nearly 8 million valid phone numbers.

"We hardly envisioned revolutionizing the way business gets done when we first introduced the service," says Roy Weber, an AT&T Labs Research Director. "Yet it has done just that, when you consider its spawned new industries like catalog shopping, and has become synonymous with smart customer service for companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to home-based businesses." Weber, who was part of AT&T Bell Laboratories, invented the "smart" network that paved the way for everything from advanced 800 service to electronic storefronts to online customer service centers.

AT&T Toll Free Service was originally designed to relieve the burden of operators handling collect calls to businesses. Last year, AT&T carried about 30 billion toll-free calls, accounting for approximately 40 percent of all voice calls crossing the AT&T U.S. network.

"Toll-free numbers are more important than ever in today’s electronic economy," Weber says. "The proliferation of new ‘dot.com’ businesses is helping fuel growth in toll-free. It’s the combination of a Web site and a toll-free number that gives the cyber-entrepreneur a global, electronic storefront. And as we continue to marry the power of the Web with the ease of use and ubiquity of the phone, toll-free will play a major role. For example, through our strategic relationship with Tellme Networks, customers use toll-free service for access to voice-activated Internet services."

Numbers in the 866 exchange are being assigned to customers on a first-come, first-served basis by a central data base that services the entire industry to ensure requests for specific numbers are treated in a fair and neutral manner.

AT&T has been gathering requests from customers for 866 numbers since March 1. At the rate of current consumption, 866 – plus the 855 toll-free exchange that’s scheduled to go into service in November – should meet the industry’s need for toll-free numbers until sometime in 2004. The code 844 would be the next to be put into service.

Customers interested in requesting an 866 number should talk to their AT&T account executive or call 1-800-222-0400. More information also is available at http://www.att.com/tollfree.